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Oil spill bill to be tabled after budget reading, debates – Minister Bharrat
Kaieteur News- Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, said the much-talked about Oil Spill Bill will be tabled in the National Assembly shortly after the reading of the national budget and the debates.
This was announced on Tuesday during the Minister’s press briefing. He noted that there has been a lot of attention paid to this key piece of legislation in the media. “…We have budget (reading) coming up on Friday, and then, you know, after budget, we have the debates and the examination of the estimates. So that will take some time, but I’m sure it’s soon. At some point in time after that, once everything is okay, we will table the Oil Spill Bill,” Bharrat said.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat
He reminded that Attorney General Anil Nandlall had issued a statement, saying that the draft was completed, and it was sent to the Office of the Vice President for further examination. Minister Bharrat boasted that it is a modern piece of legislation and a quick survey of the world’s oil producing countries will show that maybe only a few countries have similar law in place to govern the sector. He went as far as saying that even if they have similar laws in place, Guyana’s own is ahead due to its modern nature.
“This Bill will not only cover oil spill in the exploration production area offshore, but it will also cover transportation of petroleum products and petrol and food as well too. So if there’s any mishap, boat accidents that we have seen in some countries, it means that we’ll be covered here too, and it will speak to clean up, it will speak to compensation, it will speak to restoration, which are critical areas in dealing with (the sector),” he explained.
The Minister told reporters that, “So far, we are satisfied with the level of safety, the level of precaution and the operation of the operator offshore and their operations. So much so that we have not gotten any major incident from exploration to now. We hope and wish they will continue like that, but nevertheless we need this in place in the eventuality, we need this in place, of anything happening.”
(Oil spill bill to be tabled after budget reading, debates – Minister Bharrat)
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